Hello from Syl & Millie

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Sylvia & Millie

Sylvia & Millie

Member Since 2017
Hi, new to all of this. I am a mom to three fur babies, two cats and a dog. The youngest, Millie, was diagnosed with diabetes three days ago. Her 17 year old cat brother has controlled kidney disease and her 9 year dog brother has chronic allergies and some neurological issues so we have a bit of an infirmary in the house, lol! Hoping to learn about the diet right now; I posted a thread about this already.

I look forward to hearing everyone's feedback. Oh, please be patient with me since I am not that tech savvy and may take a bit to learn how to use the site (even with looking at the instructions!). Thanks.
 
Welcome to you, Millie and the rest of the gang. :bighug:

There are plenty of people to help if you have technical questions or problems, just ask, or we will offer if something in your post/signature/spreadsheet looks wonky.

I have a bit of an old folks home going on here too with 3 kitties over 17, each with different health issues, Whisper our adopted diabetic who is...we have no idea how old but likely in his teens, and then the "baby" Max who turns 9 this year and other than being a really big boy, is healthy (knock on wood!)

I see you've gotten some responses on your other thread too, so I will just link it here as well: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/newly-diagnosed-need-help.172270/ but it would help to know:

- any other health issues that Millie has, and any medications or supplements.
- Millie's current weight, and ideal weight if she is under or overweight.
- I see food is switching around but is currently Halo's Stew kibble and you are getting suggestions from the food chart
- I see she was diagnosed two days ago
- Whether you are using insulin yet, and what type and dosage if so
- whether you are home testing, and what kind of meter if so

And we'd love a photo of sweet Millie as your profile photo :)

Best,
Sandi&Whisper.
 
Sandi & Whisper said:
Welcome to you, Millie and the rest of the gang. :bighug:

There are plenty of people to help if you have technical questions or problems, just ask, or we will offer if something in your post/signature/spreadsheet looks wonky.

I have a bit of an old folks home going on here too with 3 kitties over 17, each with different health issues, Whisper our adopted diabetic who is...we have no idea how old but likely in his teens, and then the "baby" Max who turns 9 this year and other than being a really big boy, is healthy (knock on wood!)

I see you've gotten some responses on your other thread too, so I will just link it here as well: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/newly-diagnosed-need-help.172270/ but it would help to know:

- any other health issues that Millie has, and any medications or supplements.
- Millie's current weight, and ideal weight if she is under or overweight.
- I see food is switching around but is currently Halo's Stew kibble and you are getting suggestions from the food chart
- I see she was diagnosed two days ago
- Whether you are using insulin yet, and what type and dosage if so
- whether you are home testing, and what kind of meter if so

And we'd love a photo of sweet Millie as your profile photo :)

Best,
Sandi&Whisper.
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Thank you for the suggestions. I will try to take a current photo and upload and include the information as well. I'm looking forward to all the help and advice I know I will receive. A YAHOO group helped me 4/5 years ago when my boy got his kidney disease. They told me about Dr. Peterson and the procedure/treatment and we did it. I think it gave Milo his additional years with us, so I'm very grateful.
 
View attachment 26135 Some additional information: Millie is 8 years old. Newly diagnosed with diabetes, no other health issues, although she's been coughing the last 2-3 weeks (vet said her heart & lungs are fine). She is only on 1 unit of Lantus; we begin testing with strips in two weeks. She weighs 10 lbs, which is fine for her size. I do have a question: How do I find the nutritional values for the food she is currently on (Trader Joe's & Halo Spot's Stew)? I thought I'd see if the current diet was OK before switching.
 
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A lot of us try to use food off the food chart at catinfo.org I am on a tablet and can't easily paste, so Google "Catinfo.org food nutrition chart" and it is a PDF. Somewhat old but hopefully close.

You can also either contact the manufacturer for more, or plug what is on the bag into a carb calculator that some folks here (I person ally can't figure it out but someone else could help you).
 
I don't know how to start a new thread so I am adding to this one. We were unable to collect consistent urine readings and so our Millie stayed at a .3 in her Lantus dose. This past Friday she vomited a little. Then Sat. am I fed her, she ate and I gave her her insulin. In the evening I gave her dinner, she ate, I dosed her. That night when I went into the upstairs bathroom I saw she had vomited up all her food. Since she seems OK, I went to bed. On Sunday I gave her wet food with just a sprinkling of dry (she has been TOTALLY resistant to switching food, refusing to eat & losing weight). She did not touch her food all day but drank lots of water. Late Sunday night she began throwing up the water. We gave her some sub cu liquids (we have them for the 17 y o kidney cat). I decided I'd take her to the vet 1st thing Monday morning. When I woke up today she ;looked terrible. She is very thin, barely moving. I took her to the vet and they are keeping her to try to stabilize her. The vet said she was very dehydrated and her sugar was 460; she also suspects pancreatitis or possible ketoacidosis. I am waiting to hear from the office to see how she is doing. I am new and VERY overwhelmed. I feel like I should have taken her to an ER vet last night. Do diabetic kitties go through this and come out OK?
 
SylRod said:
I don't know how to start a new thread so I am adding to this one. We were unable to collect consistent urine readings and so our Millie stayed at a .3 in her Lantus dose. This past Friday she vomited a little. Then Sat. am I fed her, she ate and I gave her her insulin. In the evening I gave her dinner, she ate, I dosed her. That night when I went into the upstairs bathroom I saw she had vomited up all her food. Since she seems OK, I went to bed. On Sunday I gave her wet food with just a sprinkling of dry (she has been TOTALLY resistant to switching food, refusing to eat & losing weight). She did not touch her food all day but drank lots of water. Late Sunday night she began throwing up the water. We gave her some sub cu liquids (we have them for the 17 y o kidney cat). I decided I'd take her to the vet 1st thing Monday morning. When I woke up today she ;looked terrible. She is very thin, barely moving. I took her to the vet and they are keeping her to try to stabilize her. The vet said she was very dehydrated and her sugar was 460; she also suspects pancreatitis or possible ketoacidosis. I am waiting to hear from the office to see how she is doing. I am new and VERY overwhelmed. I feel like I should have taken her to an ER vet last night. Do diabetic kitties go through this and come out OK?
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You did the right thing taking her to the vet. No food and dehydration in a diabetic kitty can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and any kitty that doesn't eat for several days can develop hepatic lipidosis. Both are every serious. My guy had a bout of DKA a year ago and spent 3 days in hospital. He recovered but it took him several weeks to regain his strength.

Were you trying to measure Millie's glucose using urine test strips? The recommended and best way is to use a blood glucose meter and lancet to prick the ear for a tiny blood drop. This is what human diabetics do using finger tips. Are you willing to buy a glucose meter and learn how to do this? It's the essential tool in keeping Millie safe. We have many tips to help. The spreadsheet we use here to log BG data is another essential tool. It's viewable by all members and is the first thing we look at when offering advice. There are techies here to help you set it up.

Fingers crossed that Millie gets well soon.
 
Hello! I'm a new member so I don't have any advice on this particular situation but you are in my thoughts and I hope Millie gets better soon!
 
Kris & Teasel said:
You did the right thing taking her to the vet. No food and dehydration in a diabetic kitty can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and any kitty that doesn't eat for several days can develop hepatic lipidosis. Both are every serious. My guy had a bout of DKA a year ago and spent 3 days in hospital. He recovered but it took him several weeks to regain his strength.

Were you trying to measure Millie's glucose using urine test strips? The recommended and best way is to use a blood glucose meter and lancet to prick the ear for a tiny blood drop. This is what human diabetics do using finger tips. Are you willing to buy a glucose meter and learn how to do this? It's the essential tool in keeping Millie safe. We have many tips to help. The spreadsheet we use here to log BG data is another essential tool. It's viewable by all members and is the first thing we look at when offering advice. There are techies here to help you set it up.

Fingers crossed that Millie gets well soon.
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Yes, we were told to use the urine strips. Problem was we were rarely able to get any kind of reading and so we were increasing insulin very slowly. I am happy to her your guy survived his bout of DKA. We're sitting at home waiting to hear something. There's no one at the vet office over night so I don't know if she should stay there by herself. I'll see what her vet says later today.

Thank you both for your responses.
 
SylRod said:
Yes, we were told to use the urine strips. Problem was we were rarely able to get any kind of reading and so we were increasing insulin very slowly. I am happy to her your guy survived his bout of DKA. We're sitting at home waiting to hear something. There's no one at the vet office over night so I don't know if she should stay there by herself. I'll see what her vet says later today.

Thank you both for your responses.
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My guy was very ill and my vet is at a large practice that includes a 24 hour ER with ICU facilities. I would have been uncomfortable not having him monitored overnight. Do you have an ER vet practice anywhere near you? I know my vet clinic gets animals from non-24 hour clinics when 24 hour monitoring is needed.

I strongly encourage you to think about home testing of blood glucose with a meter and lancets. I know we can help you get your lovely kitty on track. :)
 
I am going to see what happens this evening and then talk to the vet about Millie's need to be monitored over night. Once she is feeling better and back home then I'll start looking into proper monitoring of her blood sugar levels.
 
Millie is coming home tomorrow. BG is stabilized. She is on fluids, appetite stimulant and something for her liver. She refuses to eat so is being force fed. Her regular vet will not be in tomorrow so I asked the office to have everything ready for us (especially since I'm not sure what we need). I will call in the morning before going there. I wanted to ask this message board what do I need to care for Millie at home post-DKA? I don't know how to start a new thread so I'm not sure who can see this. I would like anyone with this type of experience to weigh in. I did read online about Milk Thistle and SAM-e being good for liver issues. Thanks!
 
Glad she's doing well! It would be better if you start a new thread on the Health Forum. To do this go to the forum and in the upper right you'll see 'post new thread' click that and type your message and click 'create thread'. Be sure to put DKA in your thread title. If you have any trouble post here again and we'll try to explain more clearly. Here's a link to the Health Forum
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/
 
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